Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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48 NOV. 13, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED MEN'S BASKETBALL BY COREY BODDEN L ast season, Notre Dame was picked to finish seventh out of 15 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference by the media. The Irish were considered an NCAA bubble team and were expected to struggle, following back-to-back Elite Eight appearances, due to the losses of guard Demetrius Jackson and big man Zach Auguste. However, the emergence of point guard Matt Farrell (14.1 points and 5.4 assists per game) and forward Bonzie Colson (17.8 points and 10.1 rebounds a contest) helped Notre Dame exceed projections. The Irish (26-10 overall, 12-6 ACC) not only won at least 20 games for the 10th time in 11 seasons, but also ad- vanced to the ACC Tournament cham- pionship game for the second time in three years. Notre Dame's success over the past three seasons and its returning core of players resulted in both the Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls list- ing the Irish at No. 14 in the country to open 2017-18. It is Notre Dame's high- est preseason ranking in the AP poll since No. 9 in 2008-09, and is the best since joining the ACC. The conference media selected the Irish to finish third in the league be- hind traditional powers Duke and North Carolina, with four members picking Notre Dame to win the league. Head coach Mike Brey and company won't sneak up on anybody this sea- son and enter the 2017-18 campaign with high expectations after a disap- pointing loss to West Virginia in the round of 32 at last year's NCAA Tour- nament. Here's a look at Notre Dame's 2017- 18 schedule broken down into three sections of games: must haves, bubbles and steals. MUST HAVES This section features the contests Notre Dame needs to win to put them- selves in a position to reach their goals in the league and nationally. The Irish will be heavy favorites in the majority of their non-conference games while being the favorites in these ACC con- tests. Non-conference (10): DePaul (9-23 record last season), Mt. St. Mary's (20- 16), Chicago State (6-26), Chaminade (18-11), St. Francis (N.Y.) (4-27), Ball State (21-13), Delaware (13-20), Indiana (18-16), Dartmouth (7-20) and South- eastern Louisiana (16-16). ACC (nine): Georgia Tech (21-16), NC State (15-17), at Clemson (17-16), at NC State, Boston College (9-23), Florida State (26-9), at Boston College, at Wake Forest (19-14) and Pittsburgh (17-16). It should be smooth sailing for Notre Dame in its non-conference slate. It does feature a few challenges, but those fall more in the bubbles category outside of a matchup against Indiana. First-year head coach Archie Miller will lead the Hoosiers, which return six of the nine players that averaged at least 10 minutes per game last year during an 18-16 campaign under Tom Crean. However, the three departures — James Blackmon Jr., Thomas Bryant and OG Anunoby — ranked among the team's top four scorers. Senior guard Robert Johnson returns to lead the way after a junior year line of 12.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. The 10 non-conference games should allow the Irish to go 9-1 at worst, while Brey fine-tunes the rotation and re- serve roles. The nine ACC contests in this cat- egory come against teams projected to finish in the bottom half of the league. Florida State is the highest at eighth, while Wake Forest, NC State, Clemson, Boston College and Pittsburgh were selected to finish in the bottom five. BUBBLE GAMES Most of Notre Dame's toss-up games come in the ACC, with wins going a long way toward building its tour- nament résumé. This slate also gives Notre Dame a chance to pick up some quality road wins. Non-conference (two): Michigan (26-12) or LSU (10-21), and the third game of Maui — Wichita State (30-4), VCU (26-8), Marquette (19-12) or Cali- fornia (21-13). ACC (six): at Syracuse (19-15), at Georgia Tech, Louisville (25-9), Vir- ginia Tech (22-11), Miami (21-12) and at Virginia (23-11). The Maui Invitational provides the Irish with an early opportunity to reel in quality wins against teams that made Head coach Mike Brey and the Irish were picked to finish third in the ACC and were ranked No. 14 nationally in both preseason polls. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND Must Haves, Bubbles And Steals A breakdwon of Notre Dame's 2017-18 schedule